September 08, 2007

13 gigapixels or bust; sketchy photogs; more

In Spectacle, photographers David Rockwell & Bruce Mau "celebrate the phenomenon and history of communal, awe-inspiring public performance worldwide–from the stadium to the streets, from religious festivals to political marches." Dig the really well-chosen type treatments as well. [Via]

For a different kind of spectacle, see Harlem in 13 Gigapixels. Photographer Gerard Maynard & software developer Alexandre Jenny have teamed up to create a massive image of the famous New York neighborhood. With results spanning 279,689 x 46,901 pixels, the project’s raw numbers
are pretty eye-popping:

2,045 individual photos from a Nikon D2X

21.49 GB of compressed raw data

1 day for image placement and color correction

46 hours of rendering on an 8-core Xeon system with 8GB of RAM

Results: A single 48.8 GB image stored in the Photoshop Large Document format (.PSB), converted via Zoomify & displayed through the Flash Player.
[Via Maria Brenny] (If this is up your alley, see previous.)

Ah, the 1950’s, when you had to be the lookout for "corn-fed belles" hanging out of trees along the road, ready to disrobe in your U-Haul trailer. At least that’s the world conjured up by the (more than a little creepy) Glamour Photography magazine–one "designed to give the camera man a better understanding of the technical and philosophical aspects of photographing pretty girls." Philosophy–yes, that’s it. [Via]

Elsewhere in history, here are 50 years of a woman’s life, as told by photos bought at a garage sale. Note to self: Keep trying not to get old.